Sat 14 Aug 2021
Archived Mystery Review: ELIZABETH PETERS – The Copenhagen Connection.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[3] Comments
ELIZABETH PETERS – The Copenhagen Connection. Congdon & Lattes, hardcover, 1982. St. Martin’s Press, paperback, 19Critics Choice, paperback, 1985. Tor, paperback, 1990. Warner, paperback, 1994. Avon, paperback, 2001.
What happens when a female publicist working for a large New York City publisher accidentally meets one of her firm’s most profitable authors while traveling alone on a vacation trip to Denmark? Elizabeth Jones is the one alone, that is; the author is Nobel Prizewinning historian Margaret Rosenberg, and she is traveling withher son, Christian.
Should I add that Margaret Rosenberg is, let us say, eccentric? On page 36, Christian himself calls her looney. Bonkers. On her end, by page 81 Elizabeth is still thinking of Christian as a pompous snob. She is also, by this time, in their employ, their previous secretary having been disabled in a mysterious accident with a large, heavy trunk at the airport.
And Margaret herself has disappeared by this time, and soon after comes a demand for ransom. And what do the kidnappers want but Margaret’s bathrobe. While it might not
sound like much, and truth to say, this is about all the plot there is. And yet, this book is still compulsively good reading, and funny too, in case you hadn’t surmised as much.
But let me go back to that first paragraph. [WARNING: Small plot alert.] Here’s the answer. In spite of first impressions, totally unfavorable on each side, but (apparently) due to their constant proximity in the calamities that follow, Elizabeth and Christian fall in love.
Gee. You could have hit me with a two-by-four, and I couldn’t have been more surprised. (Picture Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas in their respective roles, if you will, and maybe Margaret Rutherford as the ditsy old lady, and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what’s going on here.)
Incidentally — small question — in the closing scenes there promises to be more adventures ahead for Elizabeth and her new companions, but so far as I know, none have been forthcoming. Am I right, or have I missed something?
August 14th, 2021 at 4:56 pm
To answer my own question, now, over 30 years later, in spite of the book’s popularity — note the many times it’s been reprinted in paperback — no, there never was a followup sequel.
August 14th, 2021 at 9:10 pm
Peters/Michaels?Mertz did several stand alones as Peters, including the similar CAMELOT CAPER (earlier HER COUSIN JOHN). They very much have the feeling of a comedy mystery heavy on charm and humor with enough suspense to keep you turning the pages, and yet with Peters you can always sense the intelligence and humor just under the surface, and she doesn’t mind spicing the romantic element with a sense of adventure and even threat.
Almost all of her books have that cinematic quality so you almost cast them in your head.
Her Barbara Michaels books are often darker, a bit more serious, with a hint of supernatural — and sometimes far more than a hint — but even there that sense of humor comes through. In fact the entire Amelia Peabody series is about equally humor/romance/adventure as are her other series.
You also have to admire how effortlessly she gets her research and knowledge in without boring info drops or long passages of exposition.
There is a reason she rose well above the Gothic craze that gave birth to her and went on to become a major bestselling novelist beloved by millions of fans long past her passing.
August 14th, 2021 at 11:28 pm
I had forgotten that her earliest books were in the Gothics vein, but you’re right about that. Peters had a knack of luring her readers into her stories in quick fashion, and keeping them involved in hem all the way through. She’s probably still best known for her Amelia Peabody books, always a good combination of mystery and romance, in its most general sense, but most importantly, they’re fun to read.